Thiruvananthapuram: A series of early morning raids in Kerala’s prisons have yielded a large number of mobile phones and other banned items, including drugs, causing huge embarrassment to the administration. The seized items also included weapons.
The raids were ordered by Director General of Prisons (DGP) Rishiraj Singh following tip-offs. Each raiding party comprised 15 members, led by a jail officer.
The issue rocked the state assembly with the opposition members alleging that the inmates, who included CPI-M sympathisers convicted for political murders and other crimes, were living a life of comfort, thanks to the lackadaisical attitude of the authorities.
Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who replied to the charges levelled by the opposition MLAs, announced that mobile jammers would be installed in all the jails to prevent the clandestine use of phones by the inmates.
The jail authorities had installed jammers earlier also to prevent the use of mobile phones in the jails, but the prisoners thwarted those moves by destroying the equipment and snapping the wire connections. It has now emerged that they had used salt to damage the jammers as they received expert advice on how best to immobilise the machines.
Bringing further embarrassment to the authorities, news has come that Kodi Suni, the notorious criminal convicted for the politically sensitive murder of TP Chandrasekharan, has been carrying on gold smuggling from inside the jail.
He was reportedly in constant touch with clients through mobile phones and had even threatened gold merchants and jewellers who refused to play ball. The news had shocked the public, who believe that such activities are not possible without the knowledge of the jail authorities.
Kerala’s central jails have been notorious for crimes committed by the inmates and all efforts to contain the problem have so far failed to produce the desired results.
The chief minister conceded that many undesirable things are happening inside the jails and announced that the security of the jails in the state is now being handed over to special commandos and a separate mechanism would be created to handle the job.
By K RAVEENDRAN
